bera-bera

Anthony & Stella

Last weekend we had a visit from Clint’s cousin Tony and his wife Loresa. They just had their baby boy Anthony about 2 weeks after we had Stella. They were nice enough to drive all the way from Maple Ridge to downtown to see us.

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Baby Stella cries a lot. Most of the time we don’t know what to do. The first few weeks were really hard because we didn’t know a whole lot about babies… like; how much/often they eat, how long/often they sleep, or even that they sometimes get overstimulated…

Anyway, a coworker of Clint’s was kind enough to lend us this book for a few days and I found it to be quite helpful. There is also a baby whisperer website where there is a lot of useful information. She talks about how to interpret baby’s cries and how to set up a schedule so things are a little more predictible and that way you feel a lot more confident about taking care of the kid. There are still times that she cries and we can’t figure it out, but at least we are feeling a lot more confident about the things we know she needs.

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Our new boss

We’ve been home for well over a week now and what an adjustment! Feedings every few hours, fits of crankiness, poop explosions, baths, getting peed on, cleaning spit up… and then once she’s finally sleeping we have to try and get some rest. It’s been rough and I don’t expect it to get better for the next few months. We did however come up with a couple tricks to calm her down when we don’t know why she is fussing…

The Blow Dryer - for some reason she becomes completely relaxed as soon as she hears my blowdryer is on. I had to use this twice last night to get her to sleep and it worked both times! She managed to sleep for 4 hours each session so I’m feeling a bit more rested this morning.

The Snuggli - I put her in this contraption this morning and straped her to my chest while I walked around the apartment. The swaying motion is similar to when she was in my womb so it calmed her down straight away!

We are learning as we go along! Uh oh… I smell something nasty. Another poop explosion I think… I better go…

She’s finally here!

Our daughter Stella Eija Dianne Jorgenson was finally born (on Elvis’ birthday!) January 8, 2006 at 7:31pm. She weighed in at 6lbs 13oz with an apgar score of 9 which means she’s healthy and strong. The labour and birth did not go as expected but we are happy everything turned out fine. I’ll share with you the gory details and a few photos of her first moments with us.

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So today is the due date… but no baby yet! Which means we still have a chance to have the first new years baby. I’m trying to reserve energy as much as possible and I find that I’ve been really hungry the past couple days so it must be coming really soon. My bags are packed for the hospital so I hope she doesn’t keep us waiting too long!

I had another ultrasound on Thursday morning because the doctor was concerned that my tummy shrunk over the past week. Of course everything was fine! I think it was because the baby’s head has now moved down into my pelvis which means we will be expecting her arrival anytime now! We also got confirmation that it is in fact a girl!! YAY!! So I ran out and bought her the cutest little outfit as shown above. We have decided her name will be “Stella”. They are estimating she currently weighs about 2.88 kilos (about 6lbs) and she has the chubbiest cheeks ever and she’s nice and plump and ready to come out at anytime! We can’t wait to meet her!

Today my co-workers threw me a surprise baby shower! I was so surprised! I actually ruined it by running into them upstairs as they were bring my presents down. They thought I would be late because I had a doctors appointment, but the doctor was quick today and I got back sooner than expected! Anyway, I had no clue they were planning this as I thought we were only having a staff meeting… but it was a pleasant surprise and so thoughtful and sweet! The food was great and I even got to have some cake! Here are some photos! Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts. This baby is going to be so spoiled!

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The device that measures my blood… yuck.

I had a million appointments last week in order to learn how to monitor my blood sugars and eat the foods that will “hopefully” keep things normal. Unfortunately it means I have to prick myself 7 times a day. Once before every meal and again an hour after every meal and then one more time before bed for good measure… ugh. It’s going well though. I am extremely squeamish when it comes to needles and blood so I am amazed that I am handling this so well. But when it’s not about me it makes it a bit easier to take… we want baby to be healthy so I’ll endure whatever hell the doctors decide to put me through.

So far the readings are relatively normal. I’ve been following the meal plan that has been laid out for me and things are looking good. Except for yesterday when I tried to sneak in some french fries, it didn’t go over so well. The sugars shot way up and it actually took an entire day for things to get back to normal. I won’t be doing that again!

Anyway, all the enjoyment I used to get from eating food is gone and now I purely think of it as fuel for me and baby. It kind of sucks, but there’s only 2 months left to go!!

Yummy.

I’m trying to get a handle on eating healthy since I found out I’m glucose intolerant. I found a really great book which Sara recommended called the G.I. Diet (G.I. meaning Glucose Index). Basically, it teaches you how to eat certain foods that will not spike your blood sugar too high and keep them level throughout the day. It’s really simple and easy to follow. It has recipes at the back and a sample meal plan to get you started. I figured it would be good for me to try this as I still had to wait a week before I see the endocrinologist and dietitian. I’m definitely NOT going hungry as all the food is really filling and I must say I’m feeling a lot better ^__^.

Today I’ve made Cranberry Cinnamon bran muffins, which is one of the recipes in the book. They are high in fibre and protein and they taste pretty darn good. Nice and moist and not gritty or dry. I can freeze them and pull one out each day as a snack! I’m also attempting to make mushroom, beef and barley soup. My stock is simmering away so I will let you know how it turns out.

Okay, I got the second dreaded call from the doctor this morning. I have gestational diabetes. Crap. So I have to go see a dietician next Tuesday to see if I will be able to control it through diet and exercise. It’s not life threatening, but if I don’t get it under control the baby could get really fat and there could be problems delivering it. The baby will be fine… it just doesn’t bode well for my future. I have to take extra precautions because now I know I am high risk for developing the disease. This sucks.